Tim Bennett’s blog – Electron Soup

Updated 18 March: Jono H at Telstra is express posting a starter kit & $60 voucher! Now assuming Australia Post does its job, this will all be sorted out by the weekend! I can’t say a big enough thank you to Jono H & Telstra for making this happen. You guys are awesome.

This is my grandmother Lorna. She’s 79 years old, lives on her own, and is completely independent. But she’s still 79 years old, and likes the security of being in contact with her family through her mobile phone. If she ever needs to, she can call us. Or if we can’t get in touch with her at home, we can call her.

That is, until Telstra cancelled her pre-paid mobile phone because she hadn’t put any more money into her account in the last few  months.

Here’s how Telstra Pre-Paid works. You buy a SIM card with a credit balance for phone calls, and put it in any phone. The balance on your account also comes with a credit expiry date, which you extend by putting more money on your account. After this date passes, your phone goes into a “recharge only period” in which you need to add more money, regardless of your account balance. After a few more months, Telstra deactivates your phone and keeps any money left in your account. (You can find out more in this document at points 3.7 to 3.26.)

My grandmother doesn’t make that many calls from her mobile phone, so she doesn’t recharge her credit very often. Why, then, does Telstra have the right to switch off her mobile phone service and pocket the money in her account? Does it put too much of a hole in Telstra’s bottom line to provide a phone service that generally only receives calls? (Telstra’s net profit in 2007/08 was $3.7 billion, up 13% on the previous year.)

Of course I called Telstra to try to sort this out. On my first call to 1258880 I was told that the service was “quarantined” on 11 March, and that it could only be reactivated after six months. When I asked about having it reactivated sooner, I was told to call 125111. I called this number, and after being transferred to the “prepaid” division was told that the phone number had been “deactivated” on 11 March, and there was no chance it was ever coming back. Impossible. So which one of these is it, Telstra?

This is all I want: to be able to hand my grandmother’s mobile phone back to her in working order, on Friday, so she can take it with her on holidays. Is that too hard to ask, Telstra? You can contact me at flashman@gmail.com or on Twitter. Here’s your chance to shine & show you’re not just a corporate monolith. Please don’t disappoint us.

This afternoon brings the tragic news of the deaths of two women in a light aircraft collision over Casula in Sydney’s west. While it is too early to say what caused the collision, or who was responsible, the Sydney Airport WebTrak data service – launched just last week- can provide a real-time reconstruction of the incident from radar data.

Here are pictures from the WebTrak service, but you can see the replay yourself by visiting this WebTrak page and setting the date and time to 18/12/2008 11:22am. The location is over Casula, pinpointed on this Google map.

11:22:05am: The Cessna, circled in red, and second plane over Horningsea Park

11:23:04 - The second plane, a Liberty XL2 training flight (circled) - executes a left-hand bank

11:23:26 - The two aircraft converge over the M7. At this point, the Cessna is at 488m altitude, and the Liberty at 508m.

11:23:44 - The two aircraft approach, with the Cessna at 507m and the Liberty a 513m.

11:23:52 - the two aircraft collide, with the Cessna spinning out of control and crashing.

Edit: Looks like I’m not the only one to realise this data exists: Website captures Bankstown midair plane crash. They even have a video replay.

October 1 marks the introduction of First Home Saver Accounts, a Rudd Government initiative to help first home buyers save for their purchase. FHSAs are an enhanced account, with restrictions, that will help young people lock away the money they need for a home deposit, while earning a healthy return on it. In brief:

• For every $1 deposited, the government will contribute 17c (up to $850 per year on $5000 deposited).
• Banks pay interest on the accounts – some up to 7% per annum.
• Interest earned is taxed at 15%, and deducted directly by the bank (less hassle).
• Money can’t be withdrawn until $1,000 has been contributed in each of four separate financial years (eg no earlier than July 2012).
• Anybody between 18 and 60, who has never lived in house that they owned, can apply.

I created a spreadsheet projecting various investments in one of these accounts, over the four year minimum: First Home Saver Accounts projection

On the sheet “$5k pa decreasing int rate”, one can see that saving an investment of $5,000 per annum could potentially mature by 25-30%, paying out around $25,000 on a $20,000 investment. That’s a few thousand dollars more than what you’d get on a similar term deposit over the same period. (Of course, a term deposit gives you more flexibility – you could spend it on something other than a house.)

On the sheet “Decrease rate, increase deposit”, one can see the effect of gradually raising yearly deposits from $10k to $16k (for instance, when a young person is receiving annual pay rises). This is some serious saving. But the payoff is an extra $10,000 towards a house, or double that for a couple with an account each.

The following graph demonstrates the growth in three of the hypothetical accounts in my models:

First Home Saver account balances (4 years)

Of course, as CHOICE has revealed, not all accounts are equal. Some pay less than the cash rate for deposits, while others vary the interest rate based on monthly deposit amounts. But the correct account could be great value for people who are willing to stash their money away for a longer term. Thanks to the government contribution – seventeen percent on the first five grand! – these accounts will probably perform much better than equivalent term deposits over the same period. The trade-off is flexibility.

(If you are thinking about getting one of these accounts, get some qualified, independent financial advice. As Billy Connolly says in the ING ads, “It’s your money.”)

(Comments closed for this entry due to its bizarre tendency to attract spam that Akismet’s not blocking.)

Hal 9000?

Armin Heinrich’s “I Am Rich” application, available for the iPod Touch and iPhone, doesn’t do a whole lot. It “always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this.” Price tag: $US999.99.

This is an awesome, totally outrageous stunt. Who will buy it seriously? Who will buy it just to be the first, just to show off, get some link love for their blog, have their fifteen minutes? Who will accidentally buy it, and then be unable to get a refund for a very expensive bit software?

Does Apple have a responsibility to protect consumers from applications like this – or is it fair game?